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City officials across Orange County are publicly showing support for a statewide measure on the November ballot dubbed Prop. 36 that aims to increase punishment on certain drug and theft crimes and is expected to significantly increase costs for state prisons and courts.
It would also create a new court process where people charged with a drug possession crime in certain circumstances will be forced to go to rehab or serve jail time.
If passed, some of the changes will undo a statewide measure approved by California voters in 2014 dubbed Prop. 47 – which turned petty theft and some drug possession crimes into a misdemeanor.
Proponents like the California District Attorneys Association, law enforcement groups, retailers including Target, Walmart and Home Depot and the California League of Cities say the measure will make cities safer, incentivizes treatment over prison and combats the fentanyl crisis.
“The provisions of Prop. 36 are really targeted towards those who have committed habitual, serial offenses,” said Connor Medina, Regional Public Affairs Manager for the OC division of the league.
“When the choice is between doing a coordinated drug treatment program and not going to jail, they would choose not going to jail.”
Medina’s remarks came before officials in Stanton narrowly voted last week in favor of a resolution supporting Prop. 36.
Critics of the measure, including Chispa, the Los Angeles Times editorial board and the American Civil Liberties Union say Prop. 36 will over crowd prisons, reignite the war on drugs and waste millions of taxpayer dollars on jails and prisons.
“This proposition will roll back years of progress on criminal justice reform and have devastating impacts on our most vulnerable communities, particularly communities of color,” said Bulmaro Vicente, policy and political director for Chispa.
“Prop 36 will take us backwards by reinstating harsh penalties and fueling mass incarceration without addressing the root causes of crime, like poverty, mental health and substance abuse.”
Vicente’s remarks came before a debate on the merits of Prop. 36 kicked off in the heart of the county, Santa Ana – home to OC’s largest homeless population and whose police department reported over 2,100 drug-related crimes last year.
The Prop. 36 Debate in the Heart of The County
On Sept. 17, Santa Ana officials narrowly voted 4-3 in favor of a resolution in support of Prop. 36 just months before the November election, when four city council seats including the Mayor’s seat will be up for grabs.
Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez, Ben Vazquez and Jessie Lopez were the dissenting votes.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who is up for reelection, has received substantial campaign funds from the local police union and worked as a probation officer, said at the meeting that officials should no longer turn a blind eye to public nudity, homelessness, crime, gangs and open drug use in the city.
She also said that those who need help can get it through multiple programs in Santa Ana and the measure is for the ones refusing to get help.
“Jail is not the answer. However, with Prop. 36 they’ll be given an opportunity to go to a program or jail,” she said. “This is about making our city a better place to live for the quality of life for our children and our families.”
Hernandez, who is also up for reelection and worked as a case manager helping reenter society after prison, said the measure will only increase criminal justice costs.
“It is a misguided measure that is going to emphasize punishment over prevention, that will speed up the process where people will fall into the cracks of gang violence. They will fall into the cracks of addiction,” he said.
“This is unfortunately going to take Santa Ana back to the days of the 1990s where we had the highest gang shootings and overdoses.”
Councilman Phil Bacerra – who also has received substantial campaign finance support from the local police union – said something needs to be done about crime and drug abuse, adding it’s not a rollback to the war on drugs but a way to get people help.
“If it’s a war on drugs, as in, to get people off of drugs I would support that and Prop. 36 is a way to compel folks to get treatment. This is not just simply sending people to jail,” he said.
“The folks that actually oppose these sorts of public safety measures. They’re the same folks that do not propose anything else to meaningfully change what’s going on.”
Councilman David Penaloza – whose campaign also received substantial support from Santa Ana’s police union – said the council should prioritize seniors, kids and residents who have to face getting assaulted and robbed by criminals and wake up to “meth clouds.”
“Our residents are tired of it. They call me daily. ‘Why can’t the city do anything? Why are you guys ignoring this issue?’ We’re not ignoring it. Our hands are tied. There’s nothing that we could do currently to address this,” he said.
Councilman Ben Vazquez, a high school teacher and longtime community activist who is running for Mayor against Amezcua, said at the meeting the proposition is not just about fentanyl use but other crimes in a country that already has a high number of people incarcerated.
“It’s about going back to the 90s and the 80s, where we saw mass incarceration happen,” he said. “We took fathers and brothers and uncles and put them in jail, where we could have been working with them instead.”
Lopez, who works as a community health worker, recently survived a police union-backed recall and is up for reelection, said while she was researching the measure she could not find data on “how many people in our county, in our city, have been arrested, rearrested, and have not faced consequences for their actions.”
“I think that should also help inform the policies that we support,” she said.
What Will Prop. 36 Mean?
If approved, the ballot measure would convert petty theft from a misdemeanor to felony if the person has two or more previous theft-related convictions like car-jacking, shoplifting or burglary and be punishable with up to three years in a county jail or state prison.
The measure would lengthen felony sentences for theft or vandalism by three more years if three or more people committed the crime together.
And the measure would require felonies for selling drugs like fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or meth be served in a state prison.
Beyond increased punishment on certain drug-related and theft crimes, Prop. 36 would allow certain drug-related convictions to be charged with mandated rehab instead of a misdemeanor.
This would apply to cases where the person was convicted for possession of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or meth and had two or more convictions for either possessing or selling drugs.
Those who finish the mandated treatment would have their charges dismissed. Those who don’t could serve up to three years in a state prison.
Prop. 36 will also require the courts to warn people they could be charged with murder if they’re convicted for selling or providing illegal drugs to someone.
More OC City Officials Vote in Support of Prop. 36
Santa Ana isn’t the only one coming out in support of the Proposition.
Some OC cities are passing resolutions in support of the measure at the request of the California League of Cities, who voiced their support for Prop. 36 in July.
Fountain Valley officials are expected to vote on such a resolution tonight at their 6 p.m. meeting.
Stanton officials voted 3-0 last week in favor of a resolution supporting Prop. 36. Councilmembers Hong Alyce Van and Donald Torres abstained from the vote.
Mayor David Shawver, who is the President of the OC division of the League of Cities, said at the meeting there needs to be accountability and a fear of going back to jail to stop repeat offenders from committing crimes.
“The citizens of our city are sick and tired of what’s going on with fentanyl, local crime, prostitution, theft, and if we don’t hold people accountable, it’s going to continue on,” he said.
“If I’m a taxpayer in this city and I’m paying taxes, the amount that we lose from crime, the amount that we lose from death, from fentanyl and the tragedies of families far outweigh the cost of what this program is.”
Torres said it’s not easy to recover from drug addiction and it takes multiple attempts.
“This is reminiscent of the three strikes law that we had in the 1990s that was one of the highest crime periods here in the United States. I think that it had long lasting effects, like increasing recidivism,” he said, recommending the council reconsider.
“Putting somebody in a concrete box isn’t going to help them get better, if anything, it would worsen their mental health.”
Westminster, Laguna Beach, Villa Park and Seal Beach leaders also approved a similar resolution at their meetings last week and Brea officials also unanimously approved a resolution at a meeting on Sept. 17.
The Impacts of a Crackdown on Drugs & Theft Crime in California
According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the measure, if approved, would likely increase California’s criminal justice costs by potentially up to hundreds of millions of dollars a year because it will increase the state prison population and the state’s court workload.
They also estimate Prop. 36 will increase local criminal justice costs by tens of millions of dollars for similar reasons.
The analyst’s office says the policy would also reduce how much the state has to spend on truancy, dropout prevention, mental health and drug treatment and victim services.
Chapman University students Ashley Kuckler, Nathan Palomares, Makenna Kunimura, Olivia Gluck, Samantha Wong & Zoe Eduskety contributed to the reporting in this article.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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